What if: XMan
by Axel's Heartless
Summary: Basically follows the Xman comic but with some changes of my own later in the Grey saga. Eventually will have some oc's. Summary sucks but check it out if you are a Nate Grey fan... heck have a look even if you don't know who he is.


What if: X-Man

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men, X-Man or anything else realted to the marvel universe. I won't be making any profit from this and I'm just sort of borrowing the characters. Sueing me will only cost you more mony in legal fees then you could ever get out of me.

An: For those of you who are avid X-Man readers then you will undoubtly notice that a lot of this fic is actully taken right out of the pages of the comics. Hopefully it will make a more believeable story and less of a piece of junk thrown together. I would hate for Nate's character to end up looking like nothing more then some control deprived teen that has nothing better on his mind then using his powers to manipulate and control people, or something of that nature. Of course I should warn you that this is going to be at least a bit AU and there are some characters that might not be in this. I haven't decided yet. It will all depend on how the plot and characters are affected by the changes I make.

There is one other thing I should explain. If you've never read X-Man and you have see and or read anything with Cable then you will know what I mean when I say something along the lines of Nate having energy around his eye. Its the exact same thing that happens when Cable uses his powers.

One last warning. I didn't have my beta read this cause of some reason you aren't interested in so please excuse the mistakes here and there. I'm sure there will be some.

* * *

'thoughts or telepathic conversation' 

-translated from another language-

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Chapter one

Dust continues to rise out of a large creater in the ground where, some hours ago, an object came falling out of the sky, plumiting towards the ground at suicidal speed. Nothing has moved around the blackened hole for some time now. Then... unexpectedly something alive comes forth form a cavity in the otherwise perfect stillness of the icy day. He looks like a young man, perhaps no diffrent than most, excetp he may be the most dangerous being of the planet.

He gets up slowly, trying to gain his bearings, when the sight before him nearly takes his breath away. To be dwarfed by the majesty of nature is numbing enough, but after what this young man had been through, he cannot be sure if he hasn't somehow stumbled into heaven. The sight before him is like nothing he has ever seen. For his memories, such as they are, are of a world where the air has been choked with war-filled smoke and his life overwhelmed by bigotry and hatred.

His name is Nate. He grew up in a place that could best be described as a dark reflection of our world. A world in which a mad tyrant named Apocalypse split the planet in a genetic race war. Mutant vs human... and everybody lost.

That world is now gone -- and Nate has landed here. He is possiby one of the most powerful mutants on earth. But he doesn't know about love, or independence or freedom. He can only remember, was it only yesterday? In the sronghold of Apocalypse in a battle for his life.

His head aches terribly, jumbling his thoughts... his memories... of a mission that somehow went awry.

"H-have to find... find Magneto..."

Nate felt like he was dead on his feet. It was taking evey ounce of his remaining strength just to stay conscious. He had to rest, just for a moment, long enough to get the ringing inbetween his ears down to a dull roar. With one last push he turned and leaned his back against a tree.

"Cold. Ice. This is... snow... It can't be... Where am I?"

He could feel his body start to fight for sleep but he knew it could be too dangerous to fall asleep where he was. If nothing else, his time with Forge and the others had taught him to be alert and cautious at all times. Unfortunately now he didn't have the comfort of his friend and father figure to help him through this.

Pushing himself up, he continued forward, not really knowing where he was going, just that he had to get there.

"Trees... mountains... I don't understand. How did I get here?... This is all..."

Before he knew what was happening bright lights where shining down on him, blinding him.

"All WRONG!"

Instinctively, his telekenitic shield protects him, but in his weakend state it isn't enough. He is sent flying and hits the ground hard. Already sore and aching muscles screamed when the shock of the impact went through his body.

An old man climed out of the truck worry and fear eached into his face.

'-Oh no, oh no, oh no. I killed him for sure.-'

He rushed to the boy and was surprised, yet relieved, that he could see the youth was still breathing.

'-He looks bad... but thank god he's not dead.' " Hey! Kid! Are you okay?-"

"Nnggnn."

"-Here let me give you a hand.-"

He stood next to Nate and helped him, placing one arm around his shoulder to make it easier to carry him back to the truck.

"... Your language... Don't understand..."

"American eh? My english no too good. You get sleep okay? Okay?"

He didn't respond to the man's question. He was half way to dreamland when he was eased into the passangers seat. It didn't take long before the world around him began to blur.

In his fevered state, Nate drifts from consciousness. His mind swimming with the world he lost and the confusion he has found. It's like flipping through a scrapbook. The pages turning so quickly there can only be sparks of memory. The haunting loss of a man named... Forge... his... protector... Another man... this one evil... sending Nate adrift in the sea of lies... and a brief encounter with a man an a woman... good people for sure, but... their importance is lost in the haze.

These are visions of another world and another time -- Nightmarish glimpses that build with clarity.

A battle with Apocalypse himself!

The battle interrupted by another called... Holocaust!

and and explosion. Removing Nate from that place... From that time... That purpose...!

Just as suddenly as it had begun the hold of his dream was released and he was thrown back into reality, more aware of what had happened, though not totally able to grasp the situation he was in now.

"Holocaust... Holocaust did this!"

"What is it you're saying?"

He could feel the fear coming of the driver in waves, but not being able to understand each other, caused Nate to jump to the wrong conclusion.

"Who are you? what kind of vehicle is this? Do you work for Apocalypse? Tell me or I swear... I'LL KILL YOU!"

Even thought he couldn't understand Nate's words, he didn't need to be told that the boy sitting next to him was dangerous when a strange light came out of his eye. As fast as he was able, the old man grabbed the handle of the door and jumped out with a shout.

"-HELP!-"

The man was running for his very life and didn't bother to take a second glance back towards his fuel tanker.

"Where am I!

It happened in a fraction of a second.

"WHERE ON EARTH AM I!"

A tidal wave of psionic emergy warps out in all directions at once. The result is devastating and even more disturbing... without the guidance of someone like Forge in his young life is there anyone who can control this impulsive young man?

As quickly as it had erupted the moment has quelled and the price on his unbridled actions begins to dawn on Nate.

"That was real smart. Forge would have kicked my butt from here to... well whatever. What did he use to say?... "Every time you use your powers it's like a beacon shinning right at Apocalypse."

Nate pulled his face from out of the frozen, snow covered ground and looked up to see a sign. It read Montreux, Switzerland 2km. That one piece of information made him suddenly realize something.

"Switzerland? Then... I'm way far away from home."

He let out a sight and started walking down the road.

"Alright it's a start. Gotta be more careful. Cover my tracks."...'Cover my thoughts.'

Half a world away.

The Xavier Institute in Salem Center, New York.

Charles Xavier until today, arguably the worlds most powerful telepath, counsels Biship, a time displaced mutant who has a unique problem.

"I... can't put into words, Professor. It's like trying to remember a dream right after you wake up. only I know it wasn't a dream."

"Take it slowly Bishop."

Charles moved closer to the man, not completely sure what to say. Bishop's experance with that alternate world, the so called Age of Apocalypse, has cause quiet a bit of consern to stir within his mind, but that wasn't the point of this conversation. He was here to help figure out what it all ment, not only for Bishop, but the world as a whole.

"What ever you experienced I have no doubt -- NNGGGNN"

You could clearly hear the consern in Bishop's voice when he called out to Xavier. "Professor...?"

"Odd... there was a flash of psionic power... The energy signature was identical to the one I felt the other night and then it was as if whoever did it cloaked himself from me."

Relief flooded Bishop when he realized that Charles wasn't seriously hurt, though it wasn't going to be short live.

"That must've happened to you before."

"Never."

It was amazing how much one word could chill you to the bone. Most people wouldn't have thought anything more if they had heard that someone was able to shield themselves from Xavier... Of course not everyone knew that his mind was once thought to be the most powerful on the planet.

Nate made his way into the edge of a city. It felt like he had been walking forever and his entire body was screaming out in protest. He ignored it though, the need to keep moving, less he be caught by someone who would see him dead, forced him on.

'These buildings... the cars... The way people are dressed. Can't remember much but this doesn't seen right!'

A sunny afternoon, shopping in this downtown district, lunching a some favorite bistro, these things are taken for granted. They are the simple rewards for the end of the work week. But to Nate they feel horribly foreign.

He kept walking, nearing a chainlink fence, when he thought heard something that he hadn't heard in a while.

'That sound.. is it... children laughing?... Aren't they afraid? Why don't they know about the danger?'

Nate watched the two children with their mother. She was fixing the girl's coat.

'Was I ever that young?' Try as he might the answer to that question was out of his reach. 'Like a wall in my head... blocking out so much...'

Then, unexplicably, as if a hand had been removed from his eyes so that he might see... A name stikes him...

"Jean. Jean Grey."

...and in the same instant it chills him because tragically he doesn't know it's significance.

He moves on, passing by a flood of people going about thier day to day lives, and in his confusion Nate feels his telepathic power start to run unchecked.

'-...wonder if those shoes are on sale...-'

Blipping from thought to thougtht, head to head.

'-...wrong with him..-'

All these voices --

'-... be sure to tell Harold.-'

'The language they speak... I can't understand... So much about this place is confusing... Got to find somebody who can help me... but how do I find someone I can trust?'

Even in his panacked frustration he is still capable of wonder. The lights in the window of the electoronic store seem nothing short of remarkable.

"whoa... What is all this stuff?"

Suddenly his face flashes arcoss six screens in from of him.

'This is amazing. That's me up there... I look pretty bad. No wonder everyone's looking at me like I'm... dead... If I don't get a grip I am gonna be dead. Don't know how this happened but there has to be a way to get back home.'

A loud noise caught his attention and he saw green and white bus parking nearby. Looking over at the side he noticed a sign that managed to only confuse him further.

"That bus... that sign... Las Vegas? I'm sure of it... I'm... not sure of anything..."

His head was spinning again with all of the possibilties of what happened to him.

'Maybe this is some sort of trick. Brain washing... can't give up hope...'

A man passes by and his heart leaps. Could it be... he looked exactly the same as the man in his fragmented memory.

"Forge?"

"Forge" finally a name he remembered. A friend who cared for him... loved him.

"Forge is that you!"

But like with every shred of hope in this paradoxical town, Nate has made another mistake.

"It's me... Nate... You gotta know me."

"-What are you nuts? Get away from me!-"

"Wait you're not... He's not."

The reality of the his error hits him like a ton of bricks and what little of the energy he still had left in him was beginning to give out. His legs felt weak and he couldn't stop himself from falling down on his knees.

"Forge is gone..."

"-... crazy kid-"

'... lost... There's no one here who knows me... Not one to help me.'

The man hears it only as a whisper. 'Help me' was all that was said. And where once his first instinct was to shove this stranger away there is now a sence of the familiar. He is now drawn in to help.

"-Sorry son. You startled me. I didn't realize what bad shape you were in.-"

"Help me, Nate said in a whisper."

The language is still difficult to make out, but the intent is clear. Nate has, at last, found a simple act of human kindness. It will prove more valubale then he knows.

"You look hurt. You want me to take you to a hospital?"

"Hospital...? N-no... they'd look there. Need someplace safe."

At first, Nate dosen't even know it has happened. Like it was magic. But, like a child who first learns to speak there is suddenly no language barrier for him to over come.

'Weird. By thinking about it. I can finally understand what he's saying. Like somehow, I used my power to help me communicate.'

"I've got some extra room I... I'll take you to my home then you'll be safe there. It's going to be all right, son. Everything is going to be all right."

He barely remembered getting into the car much less the drive. It only takes a few minutes by car to a cabin nestled high in the Alps. A simple home, where Nate, exhausted, can finally rest and relax.

"I've got a son about your age. He's away at school. I'm Sven. Sven Claris."

"Thank you for helping me."

Sven half carried him up the snow covered stairs and into the house, and even from the doorway Nate could feel the warmth that filled the house from the raging fire in the fireplace. They slowly walked and the man helped him to the couch where he could almost instantly feel his eyes start to fall closed.

"I wasn't expecting company, he barely heard Sven say. We'll need a few things in town. When I get back we'll have some supper... Say, what's your name anywhy?"

"I... I'm... Nate. Nate Grey."

"Get some rest, Nate. I'll be back soon."

He didn't exactly know why he chose that name -- "Nate Grey". Was it just that he had to say something? Or was it somehow connected to the other name? The woman Jean.

As he drifts off to sleep, his mind dances witht the vision of a red-haired woman. Her special face danceing like the snow outside. Snow, where monents before, it had been clear.

Nate's mind is a dangerous and powerful thing. Capable of connection with psionic energy in ways even he can't understand himself. His injuries are severe and out of selfperservation his mind reaches out to someone who could be of aid.

He knows he cannot have slept for very long when suddenly there is another presence inside the house.

"Who's there? Sven, you back already?"

"I thought you might be more comfortable with a blanket, a soft female voice called out from behind him."

"Wha--?"

She was covered in a dark green cloak, only bright red locks of hair could be seen falling down her chest.

"Who are you?"

"My name? My name is..."

She moved the hood and Nate was suddenly staring into beautiful green eyes, wondering why if felt like he should know her.

"... Madelyne Pryor."

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End chapter

So who is this Madelyne character and what does she want with the young Nate Grey? What's up with him knowing about Jean and what connection could she have to him? Well Read and Review and I'll know if you want me to continue or not. As for the people who already know who and or what Madelyne is please don't spoil it too much for those who don't know in a review

Ja ne

Kat


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